Weekly Seasonal Watches 2/25/18

A lot of emotionally stinging episodes this week. Is this a trend? Are seasonal shows going to do the same things at the same time? It’s happened before in other seasonal anime.

In this post, I do not have any talk about Boogie Pop beyond episode 9. I realize there are four episodes out there that I haven’t watched yet, but I noticed them too late. Those episodes will be talked about next week.

Mob Psycho 100 S2 Episode 7

I don’t know what this wrong with this show for me recently, but I just haven’t been getting any emotional resonance from it at all as of late. Maybe because it’s too quickly paced? In this episode alone, Reigen had his television downfall due to him being shamed on television, having a little pout fest where he was called out as a fake by all sorts of media, then made a sharp turn back after Mob helped Riegen towards the end of it all. That happened after Mob left his employment and Reigen became internet famous enough to go on TV last week.

It’s too fast of a climb for me to care about it at all. Visually, it’s still interesting and very experimental. Otherwise, I don’t feel a thing at all.

Dororo Episode 7

After last week’s sadness, I think it’s ok to get some good, light heart romance between a man and his spider demon waifu in this episode. It connects to the whole war situation going on, because the man that is smuggling people out of a town ruled by a lord forcing everyone to work hard for some reason. He’s the kidnapper that Hyakkimaru and Dororo were after to feed their stomachs, which is kind of fun.

Not a deep episode at all with the themes of humans can be monsters and demons aren’t always monsters. I guess that just means next week is going to be another heavy one and I think that is ok. Those are usually this show’s best sort of episodes.

Run With The Wind Episode 18

I honestly don’t have much to say about this episode. This is an emotional scene towards the front of the episode focused on what true strength is and what it means to win. Haiji’s story was revealed and while it was so short, it was incredibly powerful and gave everything about Fujioki and Haiji into context. The twins and Haiji make up after last episode’s fiasco sort of. The rest of the episode was a quick montage of the guys racing and planning for the Hakone Enki until they all reach the beginning of the Hakone Enki.

So all in all, it’s very fast paced episode but has so much meaning heart behind it that I couldn’t help but love it. While Run With The Wind has five more episodes left and the race may take that long, every stretch of this show is going to be turned into meaning and power. Can’t wait to see something happened.

The Promised Neverland Episode 7

Well, this episode was interesting. I don’t think that the reveal of Krone and Isabella being former human garden females is that much of a shock because what else would they be? At the same time, seeing Krone being a failure at this mind game thing isn’t going to work too well for her. She could have kept the information that Norman and Emma already knew somethings to herself so she can use that all to her advantage later, but no. Massive failure in the mind game play here.

Other then that, it was a typical planning episode between Emma and the rest of the crew with Phil being an agent of chaos. I’m not really that excited by the cliff hangers anymore, but I am interested to see where it all goes.

Boogiepop and Others Episode 9

With this episode, we finally get the conclusion of the Innovator Arc. Yawn, that felt completely hollow to me. I mean, it seems like characters got into a conflict where the children therapist possessed by Innovator’s plot never truly “helped” or affected any person in any permanent sort of way. And here is another thing, nothing that any of the characters presented in this arc did anything either. Boogiepop just showed up to clean house. It was a decent ride with a fun, philosophical ending about how people work, but I can’t help feeling how empty it felt as a conclusion when the villain never had any affect on anyone in the first place?

Maybe everything would have felt more heavy or something if the characters were more then bare bones or felt larger then life? I don’t know, but I am going to check out how the next arc is going to end up. There is enough interesting and super natural stuff going on that it is still worth watching.

The Price of Smiles Episode 8

In this episode’s beginning, Princess Yuki has saved a lot of her people through tactical retreats of her people. Retreats that save the loves of her citizens and also help burn out the resources of the Grandiga Empire. At the same time, she refuses to take any meaningful military action at all. While she is smart about learning about military strategy and wanting to live a somewhat normal life at the same time, but Yuki’s hesitance isn’t helping anyone.

All of this is realistic for a kid leader that doesn’t want to kill anybody anymore. I still feel sorry for her situation though. Also spoilers, the death of Izana was pretty powerful. We may not know much about him and his circumstances are cliché, but they are still heavy on the heart. That’s a summary of the show in general.

I wonder how the new information about the origins of the war is going to be put into effect. It is definitely going to have a meaningful effect on the war itself and possibly end it, but how it’s going to be spread is going to be something to see I think. Can’t wait to see where this ends.

JoJo Part 5 Episode 20

Part 5 has reached it’s emotional peak in this episode. After our gang finally makes it to the final location with Trish, Bruno and Trish go up the elevator to meet Trish’s father. Unfortunately, Trish gets taken away by the boss in order to be killed and Bruno follows. This means that Bruno immediately follows the boss and tries to get Trish back, but he inevitably never had a chance. In the end, Bruno is killed off, I think. It’s hard to say with this series, because he might still be alive.

Either way, it’s up to Giorno and the rest to get revenge. Damn, that was completely heart breaking for me. Bruno has spent so much time on screen either being the boss or recruiting the others through flash backs. I just can’t take this at all. Onto the next episode.

Kaguya-Sama Episode 7

For the most part, I think that this episode was pretty standard Kaguya-sama stuff. Except, there is a lot more interjected Chika in this episode and I’m glad because it added some personality to this plot. Class President Shirogane was giving his usual bad advice to the male of this series’ beta couple again, but Chika breaking in and saying “that’s wrong”, really helped.

The talk between Shirogane and the Treasurer where the treasurer went off on a needless rant about girls and student council girl’s “sizes” was somewhat entertaining in a self depreciating sort of way, but Chika and Kaguya showing up to beat them up was worth it. And then the last game centered around a mind game between Kaguya and Chika was interesting too, even if it was based off of Kaguya’s childish sense of humor. So yes, basic sex jokes.

Seven episodes in and Shirogane and Kaguya are still not that interesting of characters to me. They are too straight forward and only are given an extra dimension when hanging out with other people that know how to push their buttons. That’s not a bad thing because that means the story can progress, but it does mean that the two of them are basic and uninteresting by themselves. In a vaccum, this would be on the list of the most boring anime.